John Bridgeman Simpson obituary

John Bridgeman Simpson became involved in CND as a result of his experiences serving on a destroyer during the D-day landings

My father, John Bridgeman Simpson, who has died aged 88, was a charismatic, inspirational teacher, an innovative, risk-taking head and a campaigner for peace, both as a member of CND and as a Quaker. Always generous with his time and resources, he was keen to enable others to enjoy and benefit from education.

John's father, a blacksmith in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, died in a road accident when John was four. At the age of 11, after coaching younger children at school, John decided that he wanted to be a headteacher. At 15 he met Mavis at a hockey match and decided that he would marry her. So by 1940 he was confident of the course his life would take.

At 17 he won an open scholarship to Cambridge University, where his studies were interrupted by the second world war. He became involved in CND as a result of his experiences serving on a destroyer during the D-Day landings. After the war finished, he went back to Cambridge to finish his history degree and obtain a teaching diploma.

In the following years, he took a series of teaching posts starting in Manchester. At 36 he got his first headship. By 1968, at the height of his teaching career, John was in charge of a split-site school in Bristol built to serve Hartcliffe council estate. At its peak, the school had nearly 2,100 pupils and it was the second biggest school in the UK. He brought in bright young teaching graduates who were just as passionate as he was about education. John loved sailing and we spent two family holidays in a borrowed boat sailing across the Channel. The second time we limped home with a broken mast, and went swimming while aground on the Goodwin Sand, off the Kent coast.

After he had retired in 1982, John campaigned and raised funds for CND by running food stalls at the Glastonbury festival, got involved in various Bristol initiatives and resumed his interest in amateur dramatics, sailing around the UK and northern Europe, travelling to India and Pakistan and enjoying his grandchildren.

In 1995 he and Mavis moved to a village in North Yorkshire and he became a Quaker. As ever he continued to help those who he knew needed it most, writing to and visiting prisoners, helping at a homeless shelter and campaigning for peace.

For the last 11 years, he suffered from by Alzheimer's disease. Mavis nursed him at home for six years before it became impossible and he moved into a nursing home.

He is survived by Mavis; their children, Jon, me, Caroline and Tom; and 10 grandchildren.